There’s little chance of the Brumbies taking the Rebels lightly in their Super Rugby clash on Friday, with lock Scott Fardy saying his side is aware the Melbourne franchise perform well without their key players.

The Rebels travel to Canberra minus James O’Connor, Kurtley Beale, Nick Phipps, Scott Higginbotham, Hugh Pyle and Jarrod Saffy.

However Fardy believes the Brumbies – who are just a bonus-point victory away from winning the Australian conference – can expect a tougher slog than their round-two 30-13 defeat of the Rebels in Melbourne.

“Their wider squad is really strong. Guys have come in this year and done a great job for them,” Fardy said.

“They’ve lost O’Connor and Beale before and have beaten teams like the Stormers and gone all the way with the Blues.”

“They’re going to really put pressure on us.”

The Brumbies’ depth will also be stretched to the limits come Friday night.

The back-row has been gutted through the absence of Wallabies squad member Ben Mowen and injuries to David Pocock, George Smith and now Fotu Auelua.

Prop Ben Alexander, hooker Stephen Moore, inside centre Christian Lealiifano and winger Joe Tomane will also miss the match due to Wallabies camp.

However, Fardy backed their respective replacements to step up thanks to the player rotation system employed by coach Jake White this year.

The system has given emerging players such as prop Scott Sio, hooker Siliva Siliva, loose forward Jordan Smiler and lock Etienne Oosthuizen their debut Brumbies run-on caps in 2013.

“It’s not their first game they’ve experienced this level and let’s hope they take it into this game on Friday night,” Fardy said.

It will also mean consistent performers such as Fardy, Peter Kimlin, Matt Toomua and Nic White will all have to step up into leadership roles with the more senior players headed off to Wallabies camp.

“We owe them a victory this week,” Fardy said.

“They’ve done a great job for us over the last few weeks and have played a lot of minutes.”